Gaming/hobby scares outside America

[Starfox]

Did the accusation come from just the newspaper, maybe trying to ride on what was happening in other countries' media at that time? Or was there an actual anti-D&D campaign like BADD behind the accusations?

There was an organized campaign, but it turned out to be only two people with very little backing. And hype-hungry media. As I wrote above, that book discredited them.

I must disagree. Gothcon is still very much alive with an attendance of 1600-1800. Not much lower than in the golden days. And Gothcon always had its share of boardgames and table top games.

Hello Mikael! You might recall me as Abbe.

Yes Gothcon still seems to be doing well, it is the crown in the Swedich game scene. There are still lots of small conventions, but not quite as many as there used to be. I feel that the trend is negative, but slowly so.

Might just be me being pessimistic.

LinCon, that I used to be involved with, lacks for organizers and has shrunk back to around 800 people from around 1200. Things are not like the 90's, where LinCon used to make a budget based on about 20% growth and have it exceeded every year. I think that if we had more crew, we could still grow. Linköping is a small city (97,000 people), so in a way I am amazed we can preserver.

 

[Klaus]

Brazil had a bit of a dark period in 2001, after a young woman was murdered, supposedly during a Vampire: The Masquerade game.

Trouble in Brazil
The details are sketchy at present, but it appears that a recent murder case in Brazil is stirring up controversy for role-playing games and the people who play them. A woman was found dead in Ouro Preto, the victim of a gruesome murder; she had been stabbed numerous times, and her body was left in a graveyard with her arms open and legs closed.

For reasons that are not presently clear, investigators have begun to suspect that the culprits are involved in role-playing games, and a psychologist is being consulted to produce evidence that RPGs are dangerous. The head investigator of the crime has announced that “if RPG is involved with this crime, it will be forbidden in Brazil.”

One early police theory was that the murderer played Vampire, and two Brazilian politicians have run with that theory, attempting to censor the books from store shelves and prevent new books from being sold in an effort to prevent future disasters.

This is an unusual place for such a thing to happen, as Brazil has always accepted RPGs as a part of their culture. The craze for role-playing was so great at one point that citizens were learning English so that they could better understand the gaming manuals, and the Brazilian equivalent of the TV Guide or TV Times began to cover gaming conventions and new releases.

Unfortunately, when you have politicians, everything can be a potential danger to public safety – as long as banning it from sight will help to secure their next re-election or pay raise. Stay tuned for more on this story as it comes to light.

To keep up with the current developments on this story, be sure to visit the CAR-PGa eGroup.

Since then, RPG books are rated in Brazil by the government, much like movies.

 

[Dungeoneer]

Thanks for these updates guys, this is super interesting. I guess I assumed that other countries were more level-headed about things like D&D but I guess it is not so.

I wonder what it is about tabletop gaming that makes it so prone to being misunderstood by the general public?

 

[Klaus]

Thanks for these updates guys, this is super interesting. I guess I assumed that other countries were more level-headed about things like D&D but I guess it is not so.

I wonder what it is about tabletop gaming that makes it so prone to being misunderstood by the general public?

Brazil had a different growth in RPGs. In the mid-80s, D&D was brought to the country by young adults who spent time in the US, so we mostly played with American books and the xeroxes thereof.

The first RPG to be popular in Portuguese was Vampire, since the company who tried to bring D&D to Brazil messed up with the format, trying to sell too-expensive booklets in newsstands. So, during the 90s, the image of RPG players here were young teen goths with lanky hair, black clothing and long coats even in summer. When the 2001 murder happened in Ouro Preto, the dark imagery found in V:tM served as fuel for religious groups to call for a witch hunt.

 

[Diamond Cross]

When I was a freshmen in high school, about 1982 or so, our school (I was living in a small town of a thousand people back then) actually had a rally about the evils of D&D and it being satanic and all that because of things like "A Christian Response To D&D". There were quite a few weird stories thrown about about supernatural demons possessing the books and the like.

So yeah, because of that I ended up throwing away a hundred and fifty dollars of classic AD&D 1e stuff. I'm still kiking myself in the arse today and will be for the rest of my life.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

There was an organized campaign, but it turned out to be only two people with very little backing. And hype-hungry media. As I wrote above, that book discredited them.

Ah, I understand now. I thought you and Oldtimer were talking about two different incidents, aside from the Kult issue.

Who were these two people, then? Were they "concerned citizens", law enforcement, religious types, psychologists, something else?

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

The first RPG to be popular in Portuguese was Vampire, since the company who tried to bring D&D to Brazil messed up with the format, trying to sell too-expensive booklets in newsstands. So, during the 90s, the image of RPG players here were young teen goths with lanky hair, black clothing and long coats even in summer. When the 2001 murder happened in Ouro Preto, the dark imagery found in V:tM served as fuel for religious groups to call for a witch hunt.

Only 9 years ago? Wow, that seems so recent! Besides the government's rating system, are there still any effects for roleplayers because of it?

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@DiamondCross - Were you in the UK, US or somewhere else? I remember well those little pamphlets here in the southern US-- but I never gave up my books! I wish I still had the pamphlets, though.

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These are really interesting insights. Thanks! Any other places with gaming scares-- TRPGs, but also CRPGs, gambling, etc?

I'm a little curious about Asia, partly because I've heard several stories about game addiction in the context of CRPGs in China, and government attempts to combat that. I guess I'm curious if it's viewed as a moral problem, as the TRPG scares in the west largely were, or if it's more of a public health issue.

 

[Tuft]

Ah, I understand now. I thought you and Oldtimer were talking about two different incidents, aside from the Kult issue.

Who were these two people, then? Were they "concerned citizens", law enforcement, religious types, psychologists, something else?

Didi Örnstedt, "drama pedagogue", and Björn Sjöstedt, "cultural pedagogue" and artist.

Hard to find good English translations of their professions. "Drama pedagogue" is someone who teaches something (e.g. confidence, social aptitude) by setting up staged situations in which you act. It's a two-year performing arts/teaching education, not a psychological/psychiatric one. A "cultural pedagogue" is someone who teaches art interpretation.

They wrote a book called "The Army of the Abandoned", in which they as I understand it (haven't read it myself) claimed that RPGs were training tools for anarchistic occult neo-nazis, creating a leader cadre for their coming revolution. As such, RPGs taught murder, torture, misogyny, racism and brainwashing. They especially disliked the Swedish translation of "Grimtooth's Traps", which they considered an assassination textbook.

Addition:
Did a quick google for their names, and found one article where they wrote how toys twisted the gender awareness of preschoolers, how "The Mighty Morphing Power Rangers" made these children use deadly karate chops on each others (it was said that an unnamed girl in Norway may have been killed!), and how the Alex Haley "Roots" TV series got them to enslave each others. These were dire incidents, for which the cure needed to be an Authorized Drama Pedagogue!
(Source in Swedish)

 

[jonesy]

They wrote a book called "The Army of the Abandoned", in which they as I understand it (haven't read it myself) claimed that RPGs were training tools for anarchistic occult neo-nazists, creating a leader cadre for their coming revolution. As such, RPGs taught murder, torture, misogyny, racism and brainwashing. They especially disliked the Swedish translation of "Grimtooth's Traps", which they considered an assassination textbook.

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Think about this for a second or two. Imagine an actual assassin who uses Grimtooths Traps to kill people. He'd be the most idiotic assassin ever. A tomb with a floor that opens and hits you with spikes, and then you fall into acid, and then the ceiling starts falling, and you have to stand in a specific spot on the floor to avoid it, and... madre mia.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Didi Örnstedt, "drama pedagogue", and Björn Sjöstedt, "cultural pedagogue" and artist.
[...snip...]
They wrote a book called "The Army of the Abandoned", in which they as I understand it (haven't read it myself) claimed that RPGs were training tools for anarchistic occult neo-nazis, creating a leader cadre for their coming revolution. [...snip...]

So it was effectively a political issue to them? Wow, I was understanding the whole thing completely wrong, then. I was assuming it was largely religion-driven, I suppose because the religious roots on America mostly lie in northern Europe. Seriously: Grimtooth's? Power Rangers? "Roots"??? Yes, it's now quite clear why it didn't gain much traction after the initial media circus.

@jonesy: Yup, you said it: the "Grimtooth assassin" would be the world's dumbest assassin. But it might make a fun film, maybe a Pink Panther.